Insurance
HB 7013 – Relating to OGSR/Workers’Compensation/Department of Financial Services
On Tuesday, February 1, HB 7013, sponsored by the House Government Operations Subcommittee, was substituted for SB 7018, the Senate companion bill, on the House floor.
Prior to the passage of this public records exemption in 2017, the Division of Workers’ Compensation would receive approximately 90 requests monthly—from law firms—for the names and contact information of injured or deceased workers reported in the previous month. These law firms would then use the information to solicit the nearly 5,000 employees per month that are injured on the job. Such solicitation violated the privacy of injured workers for the sole and exclusive purpose of driving litigation. AIF spearheaded the effort to protect this information in 2017 and it is important to make these protections permanent.
SB 7018 will now be read a third time on the House floor and receive votes.
AIF supports protecting the private information of injured or deceased employees. Employees and employers deserve to be treated fairly in the workers’ compensation process, and keeping this loophole closed avoids unnecessary interference by those seeking to exploit the system.
Legal & Judicial
JDC 22-02 – Relating to Legal Notices
On Tuesday, February 1, Proposed Committee Bill (PCB) JDC 22-02, sponsored and heard by the House Judiciary Committee, was reported favorable with 14 yeas and 5 nays. AIF’s Vice President of Governmental Affairs, Adam Basford, spoke in opposition to this legislation.
In 2021, the Florida Legislature passed legislation that modernized public notice. It was a collective piece of legislation that took input from a variety of stakeholders, including the business community, and, importantly, ensured businesses and individuals would not lose access to critical information gained from public notice - most especially regarding private property rights, including judicial notice of sale.
The bill gives a governmental agency the option to publish legal notices on a publicly accessible website instead of in a print newspaper, essentially repealing and replacing the legislation from last year which will negatively impact businesses.
PCB JDC 22-02 will now receive committee references in the House.
AIF opposes internet-only public notice, as it eliminates the wide net created by print media and the internet combined. Webpages are present one day and gone the next; the internet is an inherently unreliable platform for critical information.
